A BROTHER'S CONVICTION

Did a grieving man's quest for justice go too far?

- BY EREN ORBEY

Scott Johnson was found dead at the base of North Head, a sandstone promontory in Manly, Australia, that looms two hundred feet above the craggy shore of the Tasman Sea.

A pair of spear fishermen were walking along the water on a humid morning in December, 1988, when they came upon his body, which was naked and badly disfigured. A storm had swept the coast the night before, washing away most of the blood, but seagulls were picking at bits of innards strewn across the rocks. One of the men left to call for help; the other waited for the police to arrive and hiked with them to the top of the cliff. Thirty feet from the edge, they spotted a neatly folded pile of clothes and a pair of sneakers stuffed with personal effects, including a rail pass. There were no signs of foul play, and there was no suicide note.

Scott was a twenty-seven-year-old American who had been living with his partner, Michael Noone, in the capital city of Canberra, three hours south of Manly. Late that evening, Noone arrived home to find a message on his answering machine from the police. When he called back, he was asked to come identify Scott’s body as soon as possible. Before making the drive to Manly, Noone called Scott’s older brother, Steve, a graduate student who lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife and their newborn. The brothers were close, and Scott had stayed with Steve for six weeks that summer. Steve later recalled, of learning the news, “I can still feel the paralysis of those first quiet moments.”